[Tutor] A slighty off topic question/rant for the experienced . [SICP]

[alan.gauld@bt.com]

> SICP has the infuriating property of being incomprehensible or
> illuminating.  

I wholeheartedly endorse Danny comments.
I still don't flly grok the last section(how to built a Lisp 
interpreter) but i still got useful insights out of it. My 
only complaint is it is far too math focussed for non formally 
educated readers. But if you have solid high school math it 
should be OK.

It is one of several books that I found really educational
( another being Code Complete by McConnell. Every programmer 
  should be forced to read both books IMHO!)

If SCIP is too hard a slightly easier intro is 
How to Design Programs, also in print and online at:

http://www.htdp.org

This teaches a general formula for writing functions in Scheme 
and is less math biased but the approach applies generally. 
Once you read htdp SCIP should be fairly straightforward.

> It is a hard book.  And some of the reviews of the book at 
> Amazon.com are extraordinarily harsh.

Amazon reviews reflect the reader as much as the book.
They are valuable but must be read in context.

> part of the book are the exercises: 

Personally I never do the exercises in books, I prefer to devise 
my own. But some folks seem to find them useful - sufficently so 
that I've added excercises to my latest book as a result of 
feedback on my last...

> does this...", but more often "What happens when we tinker 
> with this part of a program...?"

Which I find the most useful and is usually how I teach myself.

Alan g.
Author of the 'Learning to Program' web site
http://www.freenetpages.co.uk/hp/alan.gauld